Job ads continue to slide, says ANZ

Australian job advertisements in newspapers and on the Internet fell for a second straight month in April in a sign firms are still cautious on hiring despite evidence of a revival in consumer demand.

A survey by Australia and New Zealand Banking Group ANZ showed total job advertisements fell a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent in April. That followed an upwardly revised 0.5 percent decline in March, originally reported as a 1.5 percent drop.

Job ads of 136,470 were down 18.2 percent on April last year, but still up for the first four months of this year.

Job ads on the Internet dipped 1.1 percent to 131,862, to be down 17.3 percent on the year. Newspaper ads fell 6.5 percent in April, extending a long-running shift toward online advertising.

Analysts at ANZ cautioned that the timing of Easter holidays could have impacted ads over March and April.

"The trend for job advertising is consistent with a further rise in unemployment, a trend which is expected to see the Reserve Bank enact further reductions in interest rates over the next six months," said ANZ's chief Australian economist, Ivan Colhoun.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) holds its May policy meeting on Tuesday and it could be a close call on whether it cuts again, though most analysts think it will stay on hold for now.

A further rise in unemployment would be one argument for easing. The jobless rate ticked up to a three-year peak of 5.6 percent in March and analysts suspect a move closer to 6 percent would trigger a cut from the RBA.

Official figures for employment are due on Thursday and median forecasts are that the jobless rate held at 5.6 percent in April.